Engineering Trust: Will Weaponized Data Patch the Social Fabric?
March 7, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Trust is a popular word. Google wants me to trust the company. Yeah, I will jump right on that. Politicians want me to trust their attestations that citizen interest are important. I worked in Washington, DC, for too long. Nope, I just have too much first-hand exposure to the way “things work.” What about my bank? It wants me to trust it. But isn’t the institution the subject of a a couple of government investigations? Oh, not important. And what about the images I see when I walk gingerly between the guard rails. I trust them right? Ho ho ho.
In our post-Covid, pre-US national election, the word “trust” is carrying quite a bit of freight. Whom to I trust? Not too many people. What about good old Socrates who was an Athenian when Greece was not yet a collection of ferocious football teams and sun seekers. As you may recall, he trusted fellow residents of Athens. He end up dead from either a lousy snack bar meal and beverage, or his friends did him in.
One of his alleged precepts in his pre-artificial intelligence worlds was:
“We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.” — Socrates
Got it, Soc.
Thanks MSFT Copilot and provider of PC “moments.” Good enough.
I read “Exclusive: Public Trust in AI Is Sinking across the Board.” Then I thought about Socrates being convicted for corruption of youth. See. Education does not bring unlimited benefits. Apparently Socrates asked annoying questions which open him to charges of impiety. (Side note: Hey, Socrates, go with the flow. Just pray to the carved mythical beast, okay?)
A loss of public trust? Who knew? I thought it was common courtesy, a desire to discuss and compromise, not whip out a weapon and shoot, bludgeon, or stab someone to death. In the case of Haiti, a twist is that a victim is bound and then barbequed in a steel drum. Cute and to me a variation of stacking seven tires in a pile dousing them with gasoline, inserting a person, and igniting the combo. I noted a variation in the Ukraine. Elderly women make cookies laced with poison and provide them to special operation fighters. Subtle and effective due to troop attrition I hear. Should I trust US Girl Scout cookies? No thanks.
What’s interesting about the write up is that it provides statistics to back up this brilliant and innovative insight about modern life is its focus on artificial intelligence. Let me pluck several examples from the dot point filled write up:
- “Globally, trust in AI companies has dropped to 53%, down from 61% five years ago.”
- “Trust in AI is low across political lines. Democrats trust in AI companies is 38%, independents are at 25% and Republicans at 24%.”
- “Eight years ago, technology was the leading industry in trust in 90% of the countries Edelman studies. Today, it is the most trusted in only half of countries.”
AI is trendy; crunchy click bait is highly desirable even for an estimable survivor of Silicon Valley style news reporting.
Let me offer several observations which may either be troubling or typical outputs from a dinobaby working in an underground computer facility:
- Close knit groups are more likely to have some concept of trust. The exception, of course, is the behavior of the Hatfields and McCoys
- Outsiders are viewed with suspicion. Often for now reason, a newcomer becomes the default bad entity
- In my lifetime, I have watched institutions take actions which erode trust on a consistent basis.
Net net: Old news. AI is not new. Hyperbole and click obsession are factors which illustrate the erosion of social cohesion. Get used to it.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2024
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